Typically, the purchaser of a pair of slacks has the choice between a finished cuff or an open bottom on the pant legs. The open leg has the advantage, of course, that, with proper tailoring, it will have a length precisely as desired by the purchaser.
However, the unfinished cuff on a pair of new trousers has serious disadvantages. They center primarily upon the necessity of a skilled tailor to provide the appropriate hem on the trouser legs. This procedure adds substantially to the cost of the slacks initially. Additionally, the purchaser must often wait several days to have the tailoring completed and will then face the necessity of returning to the store of purchase to retrieve his new pants.
Moreover, even after suffering through the requirements of having the trouser legs finished, the purchaser will often find that the tailoring has not proved correct. He will then have to repeat the procedure, wait additional time, and again return to the store to obtain his trousers.
As a result of the difficulty and expense involved in correctly finishing slacks with open legs, many purchasers simply opt for pants already having a finished bottom. That however, may entail wearing slacks not having exactly the correct length for the individual involved. In fact, a large proportion of the individuals should wear slacks having legs of different lengths due to their having unequal lengths in their lower appendages or simply having a posture which places one hip lower than the other. The purchase of refinished slacks precludes this adjustment and leaves the wearer having a pair of slacks without the most desired fit.
Various efforts in the past have attempted to improve the process for forming a hem on a garment. Oftentimes, this is involved utilizing a fabric having an embedded fusible substance often in the form of a thread, to obviate the need for sewing Such efforts appear in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,168,749 to A. Cala, 3,766,566 to S. Tadokoro, 4,320,634 to K. Hashimoto et al., 4,372,998 to Y. Shimada, and 4,486,902 to K. Sakai.
W. M. Klothe's U.S. Pat. 4,007,835 shows a strip of a nonwoven fabric having a fusible resin on only one side. A row of perforations extends down the strip parallel to one side of it. The strip of material assists in providing folds along three selected lines in a material to which it attaches through its fusible resin. However, the patent contains no suggestion on how to use the material to achieve trial folds in garments' hems.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,936,944 to Z. P. Byne and 4,425,391 to B. J. Wilson both show a perforated, marked tape having a pressure-sensitive adhesive on one side. The adhesive permits the placement of the tape on cloth where the marking serves as guides for sewing. The perforations in the former patent allow the cutting of the widths and lengths of material needed for particular jobs. In the latter case, the perforations permit the separation of the tape into halves with separate markings for the locations of the buttons on one half and the button holes on the other. Clearly, this material finds no use in forming a permanent bond between two sections of a fabric.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,595 shows a sewing tape with a pressure-sensitive adhesive. The adhesive possesses characteristics which preclude it from gumming a needle passing through it during the sewing of the fabric. The patent, however, shows no particular use for the sewing tape other than holding patterns to fabrics and the like. It certainly accomplishes no permanent bonding between component parts of a garment.
Accordingly, the search continues for fabrics finding use in the construction and altering of garments. This should have particular use in materials aiding in the hemming of garments.